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MR. WEBSTER'S ADDRESS 



i 



ON THE COMPLETION OF 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 



JUNE 17, 1843. 




ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED AT 



BUNKER HILL, JUNE 17, 1843, 



COMPLETION OF THE MONUMENT. 



BY DANIEL WEBSTER. 



~y 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET. 
1843. 






Boston, June 29, 1843. 
Hon. Daniel Webstbr, 

Deak Sir, — As the official organ of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, the a^ceable 
duty of transmitting to you the enclosed vote of the Committee of Arrangements, devolves 
upon me — a duty which I perform with more than ordinary satisfaction, since it affords me 
an opportunity of expressing, not only the gratification which that Committee feels, in 
common with the mass of their fellow-citizens, for this new testimony of your undying faith- 
fulness to the principles of rational and enlightened liberty, but to add the assurances of the 
unvarying personal regard of 

Yours, ever and truly, 

JOS. T. BUCKINGHAM, 

Pres. B. H. M. A. 

Bunker Hill Monument Association, | 
In Committee of Arrangements, June 29, 1843. ) 
Voted, That this Committee, for themselves, and in the name and on behalf of their 
associates, the Directors and Members of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, present 
to the Hon. Daniel Webster their unfeigned thanks for his Address, delivered at Bunker 
Hill on the 17th inst., — an Address replete with national feeling and patriotic sentiment. And 
in order that it may be generally spread throughout the nation, and transmitted to those who 
may come after us, in an improved and authentic form, it is further 

Voted, That Mr. Webster be requested to prepare a copy of it for the press. 



Joseph T. Buckingham, Es^. President of the SunJcer Hill Monument Association. 

Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th of June, 
transmitting a Resolution of the Committee of Arrangements for the late Celebration. 

I cheerfully comply with the request of the Committee, and shall send you a copy of the 
Address. 

Yours, with much true regard, 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 
Boston, July 3, 1843. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by T. R. Marvin, in the Clerk's 
Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



ADDRESS. 



A DUTY has been performed. A work of gratitude 
and patriotism is completed. This structure, having 
its foundations in soil which drank deep of early 
revolutionary blood, has at length reached its des- 
tined height, and now lifts its summit to the skies. 

We have assembled to celebrate the accomplish- 
ment of this undertaking, and to indulge, afresh, in 
the recollection of the great event, which it is design- 
ed to commemorate. Eighteen years, more than half 
the ordinary duration of a generation of mankind, 
have elapsed, since the Corner-stone of this Monu- 
ment was laid. The hopes of its projectors rested 
on voluntary contributions, private munificence, and 
the general favor of the public. These hopes have 
not been disappointed. Donations have been made 
by individuals, in some cases of large amount, and 
smaller sums have been contributed by thousands. 
All who regard the object, itself as important, and 
its accomplishment, therefore, as a good attained, 
will entertain sincere respect and gratitude for the 
unwearied efforts of the successive Presidents, Boards 
of Directors, and Committees of the Association, 



which has had the general control of the work. 
The Architect, equally entitled to our thanks and 
commendation, will find other reward, also, for his 
labor and skill, in the beauty and elegance of the 
obelisk itself, and the distinction which, as a work 
of art, it confers on him. 

At a period when the prospects of further pro- 
gress in the undertaking were gloomy and discourag- 
ing, the Mechanic Association, by a most praise- 
worthy and vigorous effort, raised new funds for 
carrying it forward, and saw them applied with 
fidelity, economy and skill. It is a grateful duty to 
make public acknowledgments of such timely and 
efficient aid. 

The last effort, and the last contribution, were 
from a different source. Garlands of grace and 
elegance were destined to crown a work, which had 
its commencement in manly patriotism. The win- 
ning power of the sex addressed itself to the public, 
and all that was needed to carry the monument to 
its proposed height, and give to it its finish, was 
promptly supplied. The mothers and the daughters 
of the land contributed thus, most successfully, to 
whatever of beauty is in the Monument itself, or 
whatever of utility and public benefit and gratifica- 
tion, in its completion. 

Of those, with whom the plan of erecting, on this 
spot, a monument, worthy of the event to be com- 
memorated, originated, many are now present ; but 
others, alas ! have themselves become subjects of 
monumental inscription. William Tudor, an accom- 
plished scholar, a distinguished writer, a most amia- 



ble man, allied, both by birth and sentiment, to the 
patriots of the [Revolution, died, while on public 
service abroad, and novi^ lies buried in a foreign 
land. William Sullivan, a name fragrant of Revo- 
lutionary merit, and of public service and public 
virtue, who himself partook, in a high degree, of the 
respect and confidence of the community, and yet 
was always most loved where best known, has also 
been gathered to his fathers. And last, George 
Blake, a lawyer of learning and eloquence, a man of 
wit and of talent, of social qualities the most agree- 
able and fascinating, and of gifts which enabled him 
to exercise large sway over public assemblies, has 
closed his human career. I know that in the 
crowds before me, there are those, from whose eyes 
copious tears will flow, at the mention of these 
names. But such mention is due to their general 
character, their public and private virtues, and es- 
pecially on this occasion, to the spirit and zeal, with 
which they entered into the undertaking, which is 
now completed. 

I have spoken only of those who are no longer 
numbered with the living. But a long life, now 
drawing towards its close, always distinguished by 
acts of public spirit, humanity, and charity, forming 
a character, which has already become historical, 
and sanctified by public regard, and the affection 
of friends, may confer, even on the living, the pro- 
per immunity of the dead, and be the fit subject of 
honorable mention, and warm commendation. Of 
the early projectors of the design of this monument, 
one of the most prominent, the m.ost zealous, and 



6 

the most efficient, is Thomas H. Perkins. It was 
beneath his ever hospitable roof that those whom I 
have mentioned, and others yet living and now 
present, having assembled for the purpose, adopted 
the first step towards erecting a Monument on Bun- 
ker Hill. Long may he remain, with unimpaired 
faculties, in the wide field of his usefulness. His 
charities have distilled, like the dews of heaven ; he 
has fed the hungry, and clothed the naked ; he has 
given sight to the blind ; and for such virtues there 
is a reward on high, of which all human memorials, 
all language of brass and stone, are but humble 
types and attempted imitations. 

Time and nature have had their course, in dimin- 
ishing the number of those whom we met here on 
the 17th of June, 1825. Most of the Revolutionary 
characters then present have since deceased ; and 
Lafayette sleeps in his native land. Yet the name 
and blood of Warren are with us ; the kindred of 
Putman are also here ; and near me, universally 
beloved for his character and his virtues, and now 
venerable for his years, sits the son of the noble - 
hearted and daring Prescott. Gideon Foster of 
Danvers, Enos Reynolds of Boxford, Phineas John- 
son, Robert Andrews, Elijah Dresser, Josiah Cleave- 
land, Jesse Smith, Philip Bagley, Needham May- 
nard, Roger Plaisted, Joseph Stephens, Nehemiah 
Porter, and James Harvey, who bore arms for their 
country, either at Concord and Lexington, on the 
19th of April, or on Bunker Hill, all now far advan- 
ced in age, have come here to-day, to look once 
more on the field of the exercise of their valor, and 
to receive a hearty outpouring of our respect. 



They have long outlived the troubles and dangers 
of the Revolution ; they have outlived the evils 
arising from the want of a united and efficient Gov- 
ernment ; they have outlived the pendency of immi- 
nent dangers to the public liberty ; they have outlived 
nearly all their contemporaries ; but they have not 
outlived — they cannot outlive — the affectionate grat- 
itude of their countrv. Heaven has not allotted to 
this generation an opportunity of rendering high 
services, and manifesting strong personal devotion, 
such as they rendered and manifested, and in such a 
cause as that, which roused the patriotic fires of their 
youthful breasts, and nerved the strength of their 
arms. But we may praise what we cannot equal, 
and celebrate actions which we were not born to 
perform. Pulchrum est henefacere reipuhlicce, etiam 
bene dicere hand ahsurdum est. 

The Bunker Hill Monument is finished. Here it 
stands. Fortunate in the high natural eminence on 
which it is placed — higher, infinitely higher in its 
objects and purpose, it rises over the land, and over 
the sea, and visible, at their homes, to three hun- 
dred thousand of the People of Massachusetts, — 
it stands, a memorial of the last, and a monitor to 
the present, and to all succeeding generations. I 
have spoken of the loftiness of its purpose. If it 
had been without any other design than the creation 
of a work of art, the granite, of which it is com- 
posed, would have slept in its native bed. It has a 
purpose ; and that purpose gives it its character. 
That purpose enrobes it with dignity and moral 
grandeur. That well known purpose it is, which 
causes us to look up to it with a feeling of awe. 



8 

It is itself the orator of this occasion. It is not 
from mj lips, it could not be from any human lips, 
that that strain of eloquence is this day to flow, 
most competent to move and excite the vast multi- 
tudes around me. The powerful speaker stands 
motionless before us. It is a plain shaft. It 
bears no inscriptions, fronting to the rising sun, from 
which the future antiquarian shall wipe the dust. 
Nor does the rising sun cause tones of music to issue 
from its summit. But at the rising of the sun, and 
at the setting of the sun, in the blaze of noonday, 
and beneath the milder effulgence of lunar light, it 
looks, it speaks, it acts, to the full comprehension of 
every American mind, and the awakening of glow- 
ing enthusiasm in every American heart. Its silent, 
but awful utterance ; its deep pathos, as it brings to 
our contemplation the 17th of June, 1775, and the 
consequences which have resulted to us, to our coun- 
try, and to the world, from the events of that day, 
and which we know must continue to rain influence 
on the destinies of mankind, to the end of time ; the 
elevation with which it raises us high above the 
ordinary feelings of life, surpass all that the study of 
the closet, or even the inspiration of genius can pro- 
duce. To-day, it speaks to us. Its future audito- 
ries will be the successive generations of men, as 
they rise up before it, and gather around it. Its 
speech will be of patriotism and courage ; of civil 
and religious liberty ; of free government ; of the 
moral improvement and elevation of mankind ; and 
of the immortal memory of those who with heroic 
devotion have sacrificed their lives for their country. 
In the older world, numerous fabrics still exist. 



reared by human hands, but whose object has been 
lost, in the darkness of ages. They are now monu- 
ments of nothing, but the labor and skill, which 
constructed them. 

( The mighty pyramid itself, half buried in the 
sands of Africa, has nothing to bring down and re- 
port to us, but the power of kings and the servitude 
of the people. If it had any purpose beyond that of 
a mausoleum, such purpose has perished from history, 
and from tradition. If asked for its moral object, its 
admonition, its sentiment, its instruction to mankind, 
or any high end in its erection, it is silent — silent as 
the millions which lie in the dust at its base, and in 
the catacombs which surround it. Without a just 
moral object, therefore, made known to man, though 
raised against the skies, it excites only conviction of 
power, mixed with strange wonder. But if the 
civilization of the present race of men, founded as it 
is, in solid science, the true knowledge of nature, and 
vast discoveries in art, and which is stimulated and 
purified by moral sentiment, and by the truths of 
Christianity, be not destined to destruction, before 
the final termination of human existence on earth, 
the object and purpose of this edifice will be known, 
till that hour shall come. And even if civilization 
should be subverted, and the truths of the Christian 
Religion obscured by a new deluge of barbarism, the 
memory of Bunker Hill and the American Revolution 
will still be elements and parts of the knowledge, 
which shall be possessed by the last man, to whom 
the light of civilization and Christianity shall be 
extended. 

2 



10 

This celebration is honored by the presence of the 
Chief Executive Magistrate of the Union. An oc- 
casion so National in its object and character, and 
so much connected with that Revolution, from which 
the Government sprang, at the head of which he is 
placed, may well receive from him this mark of at- 
tention and respect. Well acquainted with York- 
town, the scene of the last great military struggle of 
the Revolution, his eye now surveys the field of 
Bunker Hill, the theatre of the first of those impor- 
tant conflicts. He sees where Warren fell, where 
Putnam, and Prescott, and Stark, and Knowlton, 
and Brooks, fought. He beholds the spot, where a 
thousand trained soldiers of England were smitten 
to the earth, in the first eifort of Revolutionary war, 
by the arm of a bold and determined yeomanry, 
contending for liberty and their country. And while 
all assembled here entertain towards him sincere 
personal good wishes, and the high respect due to his 
elevated office and station, it is not to be doubted, 
that he enters, with true American feeling, into the 
patriotic enthusiasm, kindled by the occasion, which 
animates the multitudes which surround him. 

His Excellency, the Governor of the Common- 
wealth, the Governor of Rhode Island, and the other 
distinguished public men, whom we have the honor 
to receive as visitors and guests, to-day, will cordially 
unite in a celebration connected with the great event 
of the Revolutionary war. 

No name in the history of 1775 and 1776 is more 
distinguished than that borne by an ex-president of 
the United States, whom we expected to see here, 



11 

but whose ill health prevents his attendance. When- 
ever popular rights were to be asserted, an Adams 
was present ; and when the time came, for the for- 
mal Declaration of Independence, it was the voice 
of an Adams, that shook the Halls of Congress. 
We wish we could have welcomed to us, this day, 
the inheritor of Revolutionary blood, and the just 
and worthy Representative of high Revolutionary 
names, merit and services. 

Banners and badges, processions and flags, an- 
nounce to us, that amidst this uncounted throng are 
thousands of natives of New England, now resi- 
dents in other States. Welcome, ye kindred names, 
with kindred blood ! From the broad savannas of 
the South, from the newer regions of the West, from 
amidst the hundreds of thousands of men of Eastern 
origin, who cultivate the rich valley of the Genesee, 
or live along the chain of the Lakes, from the 
mountains of Pennsylvania, and the thronged cities 
of the coast, welcome, welcome ! Wherever else 
you may be strangers, here you are all at home. 
You assemble at this shrine of liberty, near the 
family altars, at which your earliest devotions were 
paid to Heaven ; near to the temples of worship, 
first entered by you, and near to the schools and 
colleges, in which your education was received. 
You come hither with a glorious ancestry of liberty. 
You bring names, which are on the rolls of Lexing- 
ton, Concord and Bunker Hill. You come, some 
of you, once more to be embraced by an aged Revo- 
lutionary Father, or to receive another, perhaps, 
a last blessing, bestowed in love and tears, by a 



12 

mother, yet surviving to witness, and to enjoy, your 
prosperity and happiness. 

But if family associations and the recollections of 
the past, bring you hither with greater alacrity, and 
mingle with your greeting much of local attachment, 
and private affection, greeting also be given, free 
and hearty greeting, to every American citizen, who 
treads this sacred soil, with patriotic feeling, and 
respires with pleasure, in an atmosphere perfumed 
with the recollections of 1775. This occasion is 
respectable — nay, it is grand, it is sublime, by the 
nationality of its sentiment. In the seventeen mil- 
lions of happy people, who form the American com- 
munity, there is not one who has not an interest in 
this Monument, as there is not one, that has not a 
deep and abiding interest in that which it com- 
memorates. 

Wo betide the man, who brings to this day's 
worship feeling less than wholly American ! Wo 
betide the man, who can stand here with the fires of 
local resentments burning, or the purpose of foment- 
ing local jealousies, and the strifes of local interests, 
festering and rankling, in his heart. Union, estab- 
lished in justice, in patriotism, and the most plain 
and obvious common interest ; union, founded on 
the same love of liberty, cemented by blood shed 
in the same common cause ; union has been the 
source of all our glory and greatness thus far, and 
is the ground of all our highest hopes. This column 
stands on Union. I know not that it might not 
keep its position, if the American Union, in the 
mad conflict of human passions, and in the strife 



13 

of parties and factions, should be broken up and 
destroyed. I know not that it would totter and fall 
to the earth, and mingle its fragments with the frag- 
ments of Liberty and the Constitution, when State 
should be separated from State, and faction and dis- 
memberment obliterate forever all the hopes of the 
founders of our Republic, and the great inheritance 
of their children. It might stand. But who, from 
ben ea th he weight of mortification and shame, that 
would oppress him, could look up to behold it ? Whose 
eye-balls would not be seared, by such a spectacle ? 
For my part, should I live to such a time, I shall 
avert my eyes from it, forever. 

It is not as a mere military encounter of hostile 
armies, that the battle of Bunker Hill presents its 
principal claim to attention. Yet, even as a mere 
battle, there were circumstances attending it, extra- 
ordinary in character, and entitling it to peculiar 
distinction. It was fought on this eminence ; in the 
neighborhood of yonder city ; in the presence of 
more spectators than there were combatants in the 
conflict. Men, women, and children, from every 
commanding position, were gazing at the battle, and 
looking for its result with all the eagerness natural 
to those who knew that the issue was fraught with 
the deepest consequences to themselves, personally, 
as well as to their country. Yet, on the sixteenth 
of June, 1775, there was nothing around this hill 
but verdure and culture. There was, indeed, the 
note of awful preparation in Boston. There was 
ihe provincial army at Cambridge, with its right 
flank resting on Dorchester, and its left on Chelsea. 



14 

But here, all was peace. Tranquillity reigned 
around. 

On the seventeenth, every thing was changed. 
On this height had arisen, in the night, a redoubt, 
built by Prescott, and in which he held command. 
Perceived by the enemy at dawn, it was immediately 
cannonaded from the floating batteries in the river, 
and from the opposite shore. And then ensued the 
hurry of preparation in Boston, and soon the troops 
of Britain embarked in the attempt to dislodge the 
colonists. In an hour, every thing indicated an im- 
mediate and bloody conflict. Love of liberty on 
one side, proud defiance of rebellion on the other ; 
hopes and fears, and courage and daring, on both 
sides, animated the hearts of the combatants, as they 
hung on the edge of battle. 

I suppose it would be difficult in a military point 
of view, to ascribe to the leaders on either side, any 
just motive for the engagement which followed. On 
the one hand, it could not have been very important to 
the Americans to attempt to hem the British within 
the town by advancing one single post a quarter of 
a mile ; while on the other hand, if the British found 
it essential to dislodge the American troops, they had 
it in their power, at no expense of life. By moving 
up their ships and batteries, they could have com- 
pletely cut off all communication with the main land 
over the neck, and the forces in the redoubt would 
have been reduced to a state of famine in forty-eight 
hours. 

But that was not the day for any such considera- 
tions, on either side ! Both parties were anxious to 



13 

try the strength of their arms. The pride of Eng- 
land would not permit the rebels, as she termed 
them, to defy her to the teeth ; and without, for a 
moment, calculating the cost, the British general 
determined to destroy the fort immediately. On 
the other side, Prescott and his gallant followers 
longed and thirsted for a decisive trial of strength 
and of courage. They wished a battle, and wished 
it at once. And this is the true secret of the move- 
ments on this hill. 

I will not attempt to describe that battle. The 
cannonading — the landing of the British — their ad- 
vance—the coolness with which the charge was 
met — the repulse — -the second attack — the second 
repulse — the burning of Charlestown — and finally 
the closing assault, and the slow retreat of the 
Americans — the history of all these is familiar. 

But the consequences of the battle of Bunker 
Hill are greater than those of any ordinary conflict, 
although between armies of far greater force, and 
terminating with more immediate advantage, on the 
one side, or the other. It was the first great battle of 
the Revolution ; and not only the first blow, but the 
blow which determined the contest. It did not, in- 
deed, put an end to the war, but in the then exist- 
ing hostile state of feeling, the difficulties could 
only be referred to the arbitration of the sword. 
And one thing is certain ; that after the New Eng- 
land troops had shown themselves able to face and 
repulse the regulars, it was decided that peace never 
could be established, but upon the basis of the Inde- 
pendence of the colonies. When the sun of that 



16 

day went down, the event of Independence was 
no longer doubtful. In a few days, Washington 
heard of the battle, and he inquh'ed if the militia 
had stood the fire of the regulars ? And when 
told that they had not only stood that fire, but re- 
served their own till the enemy was within eight 
rods, and then poured it in with tremendous effect, 
— " then," exclaimed he, " the liberties of the 
country are safe !" 

The consequences of this battle were just of the 
same importance as the Revolution itself. 

If there was nothing of value in the principles of 
the American Revolution, then there is nothing valu- 
able in the battle of Bunker Hill and its conse- 
quences. But if the Revolution was an era in the 
history of man, favorable to human happiness — if it 
was an event which marked the progress of man, 
all over the world, from despotism to liberty — then 
this Monument is not raised without cause. Then, 
the battle of Bunker Hill is not an event undeserving 
celebrations, commemorations and rejoicings, now, 
and in all coming times. 

What then is the true and peculiar principle of 
the American Revolution, and of the systems of 
government which it has confirmed and established ? 
The truth is, that the American Revolution was 
not caused by the instantaneous discovery of prin- 
ciples of government before unheard of, or the prac- 
tical adoption of political ideas, such as had never 
before entered into the minds of men. It was but 
the full development of principles of government, 
forms of society, and political sentiments, the origin 



17 

of all which lay back two centuries in English and 
American history. 

The discovery of America, its colonization by the 
nations of Europe, the history and progress of the 
colonies, from their establishment, to the time when 
the principal of them threw off their allegiance to 
the respective States which had planted them, and 
founded governments of their own, constitute one of 
the most interesting trains of events in human 
annals. These events occupied three hundred 
j^ears ; during which period civilization and knowl- 
edge made steady progress in the old world ; so that 
Europe, at the commence uient of the nineteenth 
century, had become greatly changed from that 
Europe which began the colonization of America at 
the close of the fifteenth, or the commencement of 
the sixteenth. And what is most material to my 
present purpose is, that in the progress of the first 
of these centuries, that is to say, from the discovery 
of America to the settlements of Virginia and Mas- 
sachusetts, political and religious events took place, 
which most materially affected the state of society, 
and the sentiments of mankind, especially in Eng- 
land, and in parts of Continental Europe. After a 
few feeble and unsuccessful efforts by England, under 
Henry the Seventh, to plant colonies in America, no 
designs of that kind were prosecuted for a long 
period, either by the English government, or any 
of its subjects. Without inquiring into the causes 
of this delay, its consequences are sufficiently 
clear and striking. England in this lapse of a 
century, unknown to herself, but under the provi- 
3 



18 

dence of God, and the influence of events, was 
fitting herself for the work of colonizing North 
America, on such principles, and by such men, as 
should spread the English name and English blood, 
in time, over a great portion of the Western hemis- 
phere. The commercial spirit was greatly fostered 
by several laws passed in Henry the Seventh's 
reign ; and in the same reign encouragement was 
given to arts and manufactures in the Eastern 
counties, and some not unimportant modifications of 
the feudal system took place, by allowing the 
breaking of entails. These, and other measures, 
and other occurrences, were making way for a new 
class of society to emerge, and show itself, in a 
military and feudal age ; a middle class, — between 
the barons or great landholders, and the retainers 
of the crown, on the one side ; and the tenants 
of the crown and barons, and agricultural and 
other laborers, on the other side. With the rise 
and growth of this new class of society, not only 
did commerce and the arts increase, but better 
education, a greater degree of knowledge, juster 
notions of the true ends of government, and senti- 
ments favorable to civil liberty, began to spread 
abroad, and become more and more common. But 
the plants springing from these seeds, were of slow 
growth. The character of English society had 
indeed begun to undergo a change ; but changes of 
national character are ordinarily the work of time. 
Operative causes were, however, evidently in ex- 
istence, and sure to produce, ultimately, their proper 
effect. From the accession of Henry VH., to the 



19 

breaking out of the civil wars, England enjoyed 
much more exemption from war, foreign and do- 
mestic, than for a long period before, and during 
the controversy between the houses of York and 
Lancaster. These years of peace were favorable 
to commerce and the arts. Commerce and the 
arts augmented general and individual knowledge ; 
and knowledge is the only fountain, both of the 
love, and the principles of human liberty. Other 
powerful causes soon came into active play. The 
reformation of Luther broke out, kindling up the 
minds of men afresh, leading to new habits of 
thought, and awakening in individuals energies 
before unknown, even to themselves. The religious 
controversies of this period changed society, as well 
as religion ; indeed, it would be easy to prove, if 
this occasion were proper for it, that they changed 
society to a considerable extent, where they did not 
change the religion of the state. They changed 
man, himself, in his modes of thought, his conscious- 
ness of his own powers, and his desire of intellectual 
attainment. The spirit of commercial and foreign 
adventure, therefore, on the one hand, which had 
gained so much strength and influence, since the 
time of the discovery of America, and, on the other, 
the assertion and maintenance of religious liberty, 
having their source indeed in the Reformation, but 
continued, diversified, and continually strengthened 
by the subsequent divisions of sentiment and opinion 
among the reformers themselves, and this love of 
religious liberty drawing after it, or bringing along 
with it, as it always does, an ardent devotion to the 
principle of civil liberty also, were the powerful 



20 

influences, under which character was formed, and 
men trained, for the great work of introducing 
English civilization, English law, and what is more 
than all, Anglo-Saxon blood, into the wilderness of 
North America. Raleigh and his companions may 
be considered as the creatures, principally, of the 
first of these causes. High-spirited, full of the love 
of personal adventure, excited too, in some degree, 
by the hopes of sudden riches from the discovery of 
mines of the precious metals, and not unwilling to 
diversify the labors of settling a colony with occa- 
sional cruising against the Spaniards in the West 
Indian seas, they crossed and recrossed the ocean, 
with a frequency which surprises us, when, we 
consider the state of navigation, and which evinces 
a most daring spirit. 

The other cause peopled New England. The 
May-flower sought our shores under no high 
wrought spirit of commercial adventure, no love of 
gold, no mixture of purpose, warlike or hostile, to 
any human being. Like the dove from the ark, she 
had put forth only to find rest. Solemn supplica- 
tions on the shore of the sea in Holland, had invoked 
for her, at her departure, the blessings of Providence. 
The stars which guided her were the unobscured 
constellations of civil and religious liberty. Her 
deck was the altar of the living God. Fervent 
prayers from bended knees, mingled, morning and 
evening, with the voices of ocean, and the sighing 
of the wind in her shrouds. Every prosperous 
breeze, which, gently swelling her sails, helped the 
Pilgrims onward in their course, awoke new anthems 
of praise ; and when the elements were wrought 



21 

into fury, neither the tempest, tossing their fragile 
bark like a feather, nor the darkness and howling of 
the midnight storm, ever disturbed, in man or 
woman, the firm and settled purpose of their souls, 
to undergo all, and to do all, that the meekest 
patience, the boldest resolution, and the highest 
trust in God, could enable human beings to suffer or 
to perform. 

Some differences may, doubtless, be traced at this 
day, between the descendants of the early colonists 
of Virginia and those of New England, owing to 
the different influences and different circumstances 
under which the respective settlements were made ; 
but only enough to create a pleasing variety in the 
midst of a general family resemblance. 

« . facies, non omnibus una, 



" Nee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sorores." 

But the habits, sentiments, and objects of both, soon 
became modified by local causes, growing out of 
their condition in the New World ; and as this con- 
dition was essentially alike in both, and as both at 
once adopted the same general rules and principles 
of English jurisprudence, and became accustomed to 
the authority of representative bodies, these differ- 
ences gradually diminished. They disappeared by 
the progress of time, and the influence of intercourse. 
The necessity of some degree of union and co-opera- 
tion to defend themselves against the savage tribes, 
tended to excite in them mutual respect and regard. 
They fought together in the wars against France. 
The great and common cause of the Revolution 



22 

bound them to one another by new links of brother- 
hood ; and finally, fortunately, happily and gloriously, 
the present constitution of government united them 
to form the Great Republic of the world, and bound 
up their interest and fortunes, till the whole earth 
sees that there is now for them, in present posses- 
sion, as well as future hope, only " One Country, 
One Constitution, and One Destiny." 

The colonization of the tropical region, and the 
whole of the southern parts of the continent, by 
Spain and Portugal, was conducted on other princi- 
ples, under the influence of other motives, and fol- 
lowed by far different consequences. From the time 
of its discovery, the Spanish Government pushed 
forward its settlements in America, not only with 
vigor, but with eagerness ; so that long before the 
first permanent English settlement had been accom- 
plished, in what is now the United States, Spain 
had conquered Mexico, Peru, and Chili ; and stretch- 
ed her power over nearly all the territory she ever 
acquired in this continent. The rapidity of these 
conquests is to be ascribed in a great degree, to the 
eagerness, not to say the rapacity of those numerous 
bands of adventurers, who were stimulated by indi- 
vidual interests, and private hopes, to subdue im- 
mense regions, and take possession of them in the 
name of the crown of Spain. The mines of gold 
and silver were the excitements to these efforts, and 
accordingly settlements were generally made, and 
Spanish authority established, on the immediate eve 
of the subjugation of territory, that the native popu- 
lation might be set to work by their new Spanish 



23 

masters, in the mines. From these facts, the love 
of gold — gold, not produced by industry, nor accu- 
mulated by commerce, but gold, dug from its native 
bed in the bowels of the earth, and that earth rav- 
ished from its rightful possessors by every possible 
degree of enormity, cruelty and crime, was long 
the governing passion in Spanish wars, and Spanish 
settlements in America. Even Columbus himself 
did not wholly escape the influence of this base 
motive. In his early voyages we find him passing 
from island to island, inquiring everywhere for gold ; 
as if God had opened the new world to the knowl- 
edge of the old, only to gratify a passion equally 
senseless and sordid ; and to offer up millions of an 
unoffending race of men to the destruction of the 
sword, sharpened both by cruelty and rapacity. 
And yet Columbus was far above his age and 
country. Enthusiastic, indeed, but sober, religious 
and magnanimous ; born to great things and capa- 
ble of high sentiments, as his noble discourse before 
Ferdinand and Isabella, as well as the whole history 
of his life, shows. Probably he sacrificed much to 
the known sentiments of others, and addressed to 
his followers motives likely to influence them. At 
the same time it is evident that he himself looked 
upon the world which he discovered as a world of 
wealth, all ready to be seized and enjoyed. 

The conquerers and the European settlers of Span- 
ish America w^ere mainly military commanders and 
common soldiers. The monarchy of Spain was not 
transferred to this hemisphere, but it acted in it, as 
it acted at home, through its ordinary means, and its 



24 

true representative, military force. The robbery 
and destruction of the native race was the achieve- 
ment of standing armies, in the right of the king, 
and by his authority ; fighting in his name, for the 
aggrandizement of his power, and the extension of 
his prerogatives ; with military ideas under arbitra- 
ry maxims, a portion of that dreadful instrumentality 
by which a perfect despotism governs a people. As 
there was no liberty in Spain, how could liberty be 
transmitted to Spanish colonies? 

The colonists of English America were of the 
people, and a people already free. They were of 
the middle, industrious, and already prosperous class, 
the inhabitants of commercial and manufacturing 
cities, among whom liberty first revived and respir- 
ed, after a sleep of a thousand years, in the bosom 
of the dark ages. Spain descended on the new 
world in the armed and terrible image of her mon- 
archy and her soldiery ; England approached it in 
the winning and popular garb of personal rights, 
public protection and civil freedom. England trans- 
planted liberty to America ; Spain transplanted 
power. England, through the agency of private 
companies, and the efforts of individuals, colonized 
this part of North America, by industrious indi- 
viduals, making their own way in the wilderness, 
defending themselves against the savages, recogniz- 
ing their right to the soil, and with a general honest 
purpose of introducing knowledge as well as Chris- 
tianity among them. Spain stooped on South 
America, like a falcon on its prey. Every thing 
was force. Territories were acquired, by fire and 



25 

sword. Cities were destroyed by fire and sword. 
Hundreds of thousands of human beings fell by fire 
and sword. Even conversion to Christianity was 
attempted by fire and sword. 

Behold, then, fellow-citizens, the difference result- 
ing from the operation of the two principles ! Here, 
to-day, on the summit of Bunker-Hill, and at the 
foot of this Monument, behold the difference! I 
would, that the fifty thousand voices present could 
proclaim it, with a shout which should be heard over 
the globe. Our inheritance was of liberty, secured 
and regulated by law, and enlightened by religion 
and knowledge ; that of South America was of 
power, stern, unrelenting, tyrannical, military power. 
And now look to the consequences of the two prin- 
ciples, on the general and aggregate happiness of 
the human race. Behold the results, in all the 
regions conquered by Cortez and Pizarro, and the 
contrasted results here. I suppose the territory of 
the United States may amount to one eighth, or 
one tenth, of that colonized by Spain on this con- 
tinent ; and yet in all that vast region there are but 
between one and two millions of people of Euro- 
pean color and European blood ; while in the United 
States there are fourteen millions who rejoice in 
their descent from the people of the more northern 
part of Europe. 

But we may follow the difference, in the original 
principle of colonization, and in its character and 
objects, still further. We must look to moral and 
intellectual results ; we must consider consequences, 
not only as they show themselves in the greater or 
4 



26 

less multiplication of men, or the greater or less 
supply of their physical wants — but in their civili- 
zation, improvement and happiness. We must in- 
quire what progress has been made in the true 
science of liberty, in the knowledge of the great 
principles of self-government, and in the progress of 
man, as a social, moral, and religious being. 

I would not willingly say any thing on this occa- 
sion, discourteous to the new governments, founded 
on the demolition of the power of the Spanish mon- 
archy. They are yet on their trial, and I hope for a 
favorable result. But truth, sacred truth, and fidelity 
to the cause of civil liberty, compel me to say, that 
hitherto they have discovered quite too much of the 
spirit of that monarchy, from which they separated 
themselves. Quite too frequent resort is made to 
military force ; and quite too much of the substance 
of the people consumed, in maintaining armies, not 
for defence against foreign aggression, but for en- 
forcing obedience to domestic authority. Standing 
armies are the oppressive instruments for governing 
the people, in the hands of hereditary and arbitrary 
monarchs. A military republic, a government found- 
ed on mock elections, and supported only by the 
sword, is a movement indeed, but a retrograde and 
disastrous movement, from the regular and old-fash- 
ioned monarchical systems. If men would enjoy the 
blessings of Republican government, they must 
govern themselves by reason, by mutual counsel and 
consultation, by a sense and feeling of general in- 
terest, and by the acquiescence of the minority in 
the will of the majority, properly expressed ; and 



27 

above all, the military must be kept, according to 
the language of our bill of rights, in strict subordi- 
nation to the civil authority. Wherever this lesson 
is not both learned and practised, there can be no 
political freedom. Absurd, preposterous is it — a 
scoff and a satire on free forms of constitutional 
liberty, for frames of government to be prescribed 
by military leaders, and the right of suffrage to be 
exercised at the point of the sword. 

Making all allowance for situation and climate, it 
cannot be doubted by intelligent minds, that the 
difference now existing between North and South 
America is justly attributable, in a great degree, to 
political institutions in the old world, and in the 
new. And how broad that difference is ! Suppose 
an assembly, in one of the valleys, or on the side 
of one of the mountains of the southern half of the 
hemisphere, to be held, this day, in the neighbor- 
hood of a large city; — what would be the scene 
presented ? Yonder is a volcano, flaming and smok- 
ing, but shedding no light, moral or intellectual. At 
its foot is the mine, yielding, perhaps, sometimes, 
large gains to capital, but in which labor is destined 
to eternal and unrequited toil, and followed only by 
penury and beggary. The city is filled with armed 
men ; not a free people, armed and coming forth 
voluntarily to rejoice in a public festivity ; but hire- 
ling troops, supported by forced loans, excessive im- 
positions on commerce, or taxes wrung from a half 
fed, and a half clothed population. For the great, 
there are palaces covered with gold ; for the poor, 
there are hovels of the meanest sort. There is an 
ecclesiastical hierarchy, enjoying the wealth of 



28 

princes ; but there are no means of education to the 
people. Do public improvements favor intercourse 
between place and place ? So far from this, the 
traveller cannot pass from town to town, without 
danger, every mile, of robbery and assassination. 
I would not overcharge, or exaggerate this picture ; 
but its principal sketches are all too true. 

And how does it contrast with the scene now 
actually before us ? Look round upon these fields ; 
they are verdant and beautiful, well cultivated, and 
at this moment loaded with the riches of the early 
harvest. The hands which till them are free 
owners of the soil, enjoying equal rights, and pro- 
tected by law from oppression and tyranny. Look 
to the thousand vessels in our sight, filling the har- 
bor, or covering the neighboring sea. They are 
the instruments of a profitable commerce, carried on 
by men who know that the profits of their hardy 
enterprise, when they make them, are their own ; 
and this commerce is encouraged and regulated by 
wise laws, and defended, when need be, by the 
valor and patriotism of the country. Look to that 
fair city, the abode of so much difiiised wealth, so 
much general happiness and comfort, so much per- 
sonal independence, and so much general knowl- 
edge, and not undistinguished, I may be permitted 
to add, for hospitality, and social refinement. She 
fears no forced contributions, no siege or sacking 
from military leaders of rival factions. The hundred 
temples, in which her citizens worship God, are in 
no danger of sacrilege. The regular administration 
of the laws encounters no obstacle. The long pro- 
cessions of children and youth, which you see this 



day, issuing by thousands from her free schools, 
prove the care and anxiety, with which a popular 
government provides for the education and morals 
of the people. Every where there is order ; every 
where there is security. Every where the law reaches 
to the highest, and reaches to the lowest, to protect 
all in their rights, and to restrain all from wrong ; 
and over all hovers liberty, that liberty which our 
fathers fought, and fell for, on this very spot, with 
her eye ever watchful, and her eagle wing ever wide 
out-spread. 

The colonies of Spain, from their origin to their 
end, were subject to the sovereign authority of the 
kingdom. Their government, as well as their com- 
merce, was a strict home monopoly. If we add to 
this, the established usage of filling important posts 
in the administration of the colonies, exclusively by 
natives of old Spain, thus cutting off forever, all 
hopes of honorable preferment from every man born 
in the Western hemisphere, causes enough rise up 
before us at once, to account fully for the subse- 
quent history and character of these provinces. 
The Viceroys and Provincial Governors of Spain 
were never at home in their governments in Ameri- 
ca. They did not feel that they were of the people, 
whom they governed. Their official character and 
employment have a good deal of resemblance to 
those of the pro-consuls of Rome, in Asia, Sicily 
and Gaul ; but obviously no resemblance to those of 
Carver and Winthrop, and very little to those of the 
Governors of Virginia after that colony had estab- 
lished a popular house of Burgesses. 



30 

The English Colonists in America, generally 
speaking, were men who were seeking new homes 
in a new world. They brought with them their 
families and all that was most dear to them. This 
was especially the case with the colonists of 
Plymouth and Massachusetts. Many of them were 
educated men, and all possessed their full share, 
according to their social condition, of the knowledge 
and attainments of that age. The distinctive 
characteristic of their settlement, is the introduction 
of the civilization of Europe into a wilderness, 
without bringing with it the political institutions of 
Europe. The arts, sciences and literature of 
England came over with the settlers. That great 
portion of the common law, which regulates the 
social and personal relations and conduct of men, 
came also. The jury came ; the habeas corpus 
came ; the testamentary power came ; and the law 
of inheritance and descent came also, except that 
part of it which recognizes the rights of primogeni- 
ture, which either did not come at all, or soon gave 
way to the rule of equal partition of estates among 
children. But the monarchy did not come, nor the 
aristocracy, nor the church, as an estate of the 
realm. Political institutions were to be framed 
anew, such as should be adapted to the state of 
things. But it could not be doubtful, what should 
be the nature and character of these institutions. A 
general social equality prevailed among the settlers, 
and an equality of political rights seemed the natural, 
if not the necessary consequence. After forty years 
of revolution, violence and war, the people of France 



31 

have placed at the head of the fundamental instru- 
ment of their government, as the great boon obtained 
by all their sufferings and sacrifices, the declaration, 
that all Frenchmen are equal before the law. What 
France has reached only by the expenditure of so 
much blood and treasure, and the exhibition of so 
much crime, the English colonists obtained, by 
simply changing their place, carrying with them the 
intellectual and moral culture of Europe, and the 
personal and social relations to which they were 
accustomed, but leaving behind their political in- 
stitutions. It has been said with much vivacity, 
that the felicity of the American colonists consisted 
in their escape from the past. This is true, so far 
as respects political establishments, but no further. 
They brought with them a full portion of all the 
riches of the past, in science, in art, in morals, 
religion and literature. The Bible came with them. 
And it is not to be doubted, that to the free and 
universal reading of the Bible, in that age, men were 
much indebted for right views of civil liberty. The 
Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and 
a book of morals, and a book of religion, of especial 
revelation from God ; but it is also a book, which 
teaches man his own individual responsibility, his 
own dignity, and his equality with his fellow man. 

Bacon, and Locke, and Milton, and Shakspeare 
also came with the colonists. These colonists came to 
form new political systems, but all that belonged ta 
cultivated man, to family, to neighborhood, to social 
relations, accompanied them. In the Doric phrase 
of one of our own historians, " they came to settle 



32 

on bare creation ; " but their settlement in the 
wilderness nevertheless, was not a lodgement of 
nomade tribes, a mere resting place of roaming 
savages. It was the beginning of a permanent 
community, the fixed residence of cultivated men. 
Not only was English literature read, but English, 
good English, was spoken and written, before the 
axe had made way to let in the sun, upon the 
habitations and fields of Plymouth and Massachu- 
setts. And whatever may be said to the contrary, 
a correct use of the English language is, at this day, 
more general throughout the United States, than it 
is throughout England herself. 

But another grand characteristic is, that in the 
English colonies, political affairs were left to be 
managed by the colonists themselves. This is 
another fact wholly distinguishing them in character, 
as it has distinguished them in fortune, from the 
colonists of Spain. Here lies the foundation of that 
experience in self-government, which has preserved 
order, and security, and regularity, amidst the play 
of popular institutions. Home government was the 
secret of the prosperity of the North American 
settlements. The more distinguished of the New 
England colonists, with a most remarkable sagacity, 
and a long sighted reach into futurity, refused to 
come to America, unless they could bring with them 
charters providing for the administration of their 
affairs in this country. They saw from the first, the 
evils of being governed in the new world, by 
counsels held in the old. Acknowledging the 
general superiority of the crown, they still insisted 



33 

on the right of passing local laws, and of local 
administration. And history teaches us the justice 
and the value of this determination, in the example 
of Virginia. The early attempts to settle that 
colony failed, sometimes with the most melancholy 
and fatal consequences, from want of knowledge, 
care and attention on the part of those who had the 
charge of their affairs in England ; and it was only 
after the issuing of the third charter, that its pros- 
perity fairly commenced. The cause was, that 
by that third charter, the people of Virginia, (for 
by this time they deserve to be so called,) were 
allowed to constitute and establish the first popular 
Representative Assembly, which ever convened on 
this continent — the Virginia House of Burgesses. 

The great elements, then, of the American sys- 
tem of government, originally introduced by the 
colonies, and which were early in operation, and 
ready to be developed, more and more, as the pro- 
gress of events should justify or demand, were ; 

Escape from the existing political systems of 
Europe, including its religious hierarchies ; but the 
continued possession and enjoyment of its science 
and arts, its literature, and its manners ; 

Home Government, or the power of making 
in the colony the municipal laws, which were to 
govern it ; 

Equality of Rights ; 

Representative Assemblies, or forms of govern- 
ment founded on popular elections. 

Few topics are more inviting, or more fit for 
5 



34 

philosophical discussion, than the effect of institu- 
tions, founded upon these principles, on the happi- 
ness of mankind ; or, in other words, the influence 
of the New World upon the Old. 

Her obligations to Europe for science and art, 
laws, literature and manners, America acknowledges 
as she ought, with respect and gratitude. And the 
people of the United States, descendants of the 
English stock, grateful for the treasures of knowl- 
edge derived from their English ancestors, admit 
also, with thanks and filial regard, that among 
those ancestors, under the culture of Hampden and 
Sydney, and other assiduous friends, that seed of 
popular liberty first germinated, which on our soil 
has shot up to its full height, until its branches 
overshadow all the land. 

But America has not failed to make returns. If 
she has not cancelled the obligation, or equalled it 
by others of like weight, she has, at least, made 
respectable advances towards equality. And she 
admits, that standing in the midst of civilized na- 
tions, and in a civilized age — a nation among nations 
— there is a high part which she is expected to act, 
for the general advancement of human interests and 
human welfare. 

American mines have filled the mints of Europe 
with the precious metals. The productions of the 
American soil and climate have poured out their 
abundance of luxuries for the tables of the rich, and 
of necessaries for the sustenance of the poor. Birds 
and animals of beauty and value have been added to 
the European stocks ; and transplantations from the 



35 

transcendent and unequalled riches of our forests, 
have mingled themselves profusely with the elms, 
and ashes, and druidical oaks of England. 

America has made contributions far more vast. 
Who can estimate the amount, or the value, of the 
augmentation of the commerce of the world, that 
has resulted from America ? Who can imagine to 
himself, what would now be the shock to the Eastern 
continent, if the Atlantic were no longer travers- 
able, or if there were no longer American produc- 
tions, or American markets ? 

But America exercises influences, or holds out 
examples, for the consideration of the Old world, of 
a much higher, because they are of a moral and 
political character. 

America has furnished to Europe proof of the 
fact, that popular institutions, founded on equality and 
the principle of representation, are capable of main- 
taining governments — able to secure the rights of 
person, property and reputation. 

America has proved that it is practicable to ele- 
vate the mass of mankind — that portion which in 
Europe is called the laboring, or lower class — to 
raise them to self-respect, to make them competent 
to act a part in the great right, and great duty, of 
self-government ; and this she has proved may be 
done by education and the diifusion of knowledge. 
She holds out an example, a thousand times more 
enchanting than ever was presented before, to those 
nine-tenths of the human race who are born without 
hereditary fortune or hereditary rank. 

America has furnished to the world the character 



36 

of Washington ! And if our American institutions 
had done nothing else, that alone would have en- 
titled them to the respect of mankind. 

Washington ! " First in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen!" Washington 
is all our own ! The enthusiastic veneration and 
regard in which the people of the United States 
hold him, prove them to be worthy of such a country- 
man; while his reputation abroad reflects the highest 
honor on his country and its institutions. I would 
cheerfully put the question to-day to the intelligence 
of Europe and the world, what character of the 
century, upon the whole, stands out in the relief of 
history, most pure, most respectable, most sublime ; 
and I doubt not, that by a suffrage approaching to 
unanimity, the answer would be Washington ! 

The structure, now standing before us, by its up- 
rightness, its solidity, its durability, is no unlit 
emblem of his character. His public virtues and 
public principles were as firm as the earth on which 
it stands ; his personal motives, as pure as the se- 
rene heaven in which its summit is lost. But, 
indeed, though a fit, it is an inadequate emblem. 
Towering high above the column which our hands 
have builded, beheld, not by the inhabitants of a 
single city or a single State — but by all the families 
of man, ascends the colossal grandeur of the charac- 
ter and life of Washington. In all the constituents 
of the one — in all the acts of the other — in all its 
titles to immortal love, admiration and renown — it 
is an American production. It is the embodiment 
and vindication of our transatlantic liberty. Born 



31 

upon our soil — of parents also born upon it — never 
for a moment having had sight of the old world — 
instructed, according to the modes of his time, only 
in the spare, plain, but wholesome elementary 
knowledge which our institutions provide for the 
children of the people — growing up beneath and 
penetrated by the genuine influences of American 
society — living from infancy to manhood, and age, 
amidst our expanding, but not luxurious, civiliza- 
tion — partaking in our great destiny of labor, our 
long contest with unreclaimed nature and uncivil- 
ized man — our agony of glory, the war of Indepen- 
dence — our great victory of peace, the formation of 
the Union, and the establishment of the Constitu- 
tion — he is all — all our own! Washington is ours. 
That crowded and glorious life — 

" Where multitudes of virtues passed along, 
Each pressing foremost, in the mighty throng 
Ambitious to be seen, then making room 
For greater multitudes that were to come ; — '" 

that life, was the life of an American citizen. 

I claim him for America. In all the perils, in 
every darkened moment of the state, in the midst of 
the reproaches of enemies and the misgiving of 
friends — I turn to that transcendent name for cour- 
age, and for consolation. To him who denies, or 
doubts whether our fervid liberty can be combined 
with law, with order, with the security of property, 
with the pursuits and advancement of happiness — 
to him who denies that our institutions are capable 
of producing exaltation of soul, and the passion of 



38 

true glory — to him who denies that we have con- 
tributed any thing to the stock of great lessons and 
great examples — to all these I reply, by jjointing to 
Washington ! 

And now, friends and fellow-citizens, it is time to 
bring this discourse to a close. 

We have indulged in gratifying recollections of 
the past, in the prosperity and pleasures of the pres- 
ent, and in high hopes of the future. But let us re- 
member that we have duties and obligations to per- 
form, corresponding to the blessings which we 
enjoy. Let us remember the trust, the sacred trust, 
attaching to the rich inheritance which we have 
received from our fathers. Let us feel our personal 
responsibility, to the full extent of our power and 
influence, for the preservation of our institutions of 
civil and religious liberty. And let us remember 
that it is only religion, and morals, and knowledge, 
that can make men respectable and happy, under 
any form of government. Let us hold fast the 
great truth, that communities are responsible, as 
well as individuals ; that no government is respecta- 
ble, which is not just; that without unspotted puri- 
ty of public faith, without sacred public principle, 
fidelity and honor — no mere forms of government, no 
machinery of laws, can give dignity to political so- 
ciety. In our day and generation let us seek to raise 
and improve the moral sentiment, so that we may 
look, not for a degraded, but for an elevated and 
improved future. And when we, and our children, 
shall all have been consigned to the house appoint- 



39 

ed for all living, may love of country — and pride of 
country — glow with equal fervor among those to 
whom our names and our blood shall have descend- 
ed ! And then, when honored and decrepid age 
shall lean against the base of this Monument, and 
troops of ingenuous youth shall be gathered round 
it, and when the one shall speak to the other of its 
objects, the purposes of its construction, and the 
great and glorious events with which it is connected 
— there shall rise, from every youthful breast, the 
ejaculation — "thank God, I — I also — am an Ameri- 
can." 



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